Another green roof bylaw hits North America + trading paper for prickly pears

-Rosemont-Petite Patrie, a borough of Montreal, is the newest city to mandate  the installation of green roofs or green walls on buildings.

Congrats to Rosemont-Petite Patrie for joining the club. 

-Wednesday, May 2 tune in to Living Mandala for a free webinar on aquaponics with applied permaculture. If you're in the upstate New York area, you can try the hands-on workshop.

-This articles deserves some publicity. First of all, it’s written by a namesake....Kelven. I mean, it’s not how I spell it, but close enough. On the serious side it opens our eyes to how urban farming can be the key to survival for undernourished prisoners in Zimbabwe. 

 Lastly, in what I hope becomes a blueprint for urban agriculture and recycling around the world in Mexico City the Ministry of the Environment has set up a barter market where one can trade recyclable trash for credits at local farms.

Green roof athletic field...North America's first

Totally forgot to post this one. North America has its first green roof field, I think second in the world. Worcester Polytechnic Institute will have their soccer, softball, field hockey, lacrosse and rugby players playing atop an underground parking lot. 

Arbor Day tribute

Today is Arbor Day across North America!!!! Did you know it's a State Holiday in Nebraska?

On this day, of all days, we should share why trees matter, pay attention to lessons of the past and not replicate those unbelievably sad tragedies. For those who want only the tree related material, fast forward to around the 14:40 mark.

Let's end on a happy note. Since everyone should get in on Arbor Day fun, here are some tunes for us all:

-Peter Gabriel & Youssou N'Dour - Shaking the Tree
-Joni Mitchell - Cactus Tree
-The Andrews Sisters - Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree
-The Beach Boys - Day in the Life of a Tree
-The Toadies - Away
-They Might be Giants - Arbor Day

Urban agriculture bonanza

Urban agriculture is many things to many people. Frequently food is about social justice. From NY to San Francisco to Washington DC we have examples all within the last week, big and small, up high and low, demonstrating how food implores urbanites to act. 

More news:

-The City of Vancouver has joined a chorus of other cities changing their bylaws to allow more urban agriculture. Question to anyone out there, is it common for municipalities to have legislation caused by one plant (marijuana) prohibiting the sale of others (everything else)?

-Colorado has it’s first urban agriculture extension agent. Looks like he is the only urban agriculture extension agent  in North America so far!

-Remember this title: The State Of Urban Farming In The United States: Enhancing The Viability Of Small And Medium-Sized Commercial Urban Farms. A recently awarded $453,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will allow researchers at Penn State to study urban agriculture in fifteen cities. Can’t wait for the  findings. 

-Lastly, Rick Foster and Michigan State University are totally with me. I love this quote “Detroit ‘could be the research and innovation engine’ for urban agriculture around the world”. They are certainly dreaming big.

Urban agriculture job posting in Buffalo

Buffalo's Massachusetts Avenue Project is looking for a full-time Youth Training Director. Your primary responsibility would be to coordinate and implement an urban agriculture training curriculum. Looks like a great opportunity, deadline is May 4, 2012. Good luck!